A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Force, Motion, and Leibniz’s Argument from Successiveness
Authors: Myrdal Peter
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Publishing place: Berlin
Publication year: 2021
Journal: Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie
Volume: 103
Issue: 4
First page : 704
Last page: 729
eISSN: 1613-0650
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/agph-2018-0088
Web address : https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/agph-2018-0088/html
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/53057643
This essay proposes a new interpretation of a central, and yet overlooked, argument Leibniz offers against Descartes’s power-free ontology of the corporeal world. Appealing to considerations about the successiveness of motion, Leibniz attempts to show that the reality of motion requires force. It is often assumed that the argument is driven by concerns inspired by Zeno. Against such a reading, this essay contends that Leibniz’s argument is instead best understood against the background of an Aristotelian view of the priority of real being over time. The essay also shows how this alternative interpretation can help to shed new light on the difference between Leibnizian forces and Aristotelian powers, as well as on Leibniz’s famous claim that accounting for force leads us beyond the mechanistic corporeal realm.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |